Report: Microsoft OneNote for OS X coming this month, will be free

Other rumors say the whole Office for Mac suite will see an update this year.

Microsoft's Office for Mac software comes with far fewer applications than does the Windows version of Office. If you need anything other than Word, Excel, Powerpoint, or Outlook, you're out of luck. According to a report from The Verge this morning, however, that will soon change. Microsoft apparently plans to offer a version of its OneNote note-taking and organizing app for OS X later this month, and it will be available free of charge. The report also says that Microsoft will be breaking the Windows version of the OneNote client out from the rest of the Office applications and offering it for free, though it's not clear whether that will happen at the same time as the OS X release or at some later date.

OS X is one of the few major software platforms without a dedicated OneNote client—iOS, Android, and Windows Phone 8 are all already supported. Currently, Mac users who want to access their OneNote data can do it through the OneNote Web app, though like all of Microsoft's Office Web apps, viewing and editing functionality is limited compared to offline clients.

This news follows yesterday's rumors of a new Office for Mac release, which some reports say could be coming later this year. The last major version, Office for Mac 2011, appeared (despite its name) in October 2010. When we followed up, a Microsoft representative wouldn't comment on the timing for a new Office for Mac release but did say that "the team is hard at work on the next version of Office for Mac" and that "when it’s available, Office 365 subscribers will automatically get the next Office for Mac at no additional cost."

52 Reader Comments

This is great. I prefer OneNote's functionality to Evernote's, but because I spend a significant amount of time working on a Mac I've been forced to stick to Evernote. Making the Windows desktop app free is a good idea too, as it's already free on every other platform on which it's offered (including Windows RT).

Can't wait to see the OSX version. OneNote is like MS's secret Office weapon. So few people seem to know about it and it is what I immediately missed having in OSX.

There are other similar OSX offerings (Curio, Circus Ponies Notebook, Growly Notebook, etcetera) but they do not work on existing OneNote files. I use an iOS app, Outline+, to read OneNote files and they have been promising more compatibility seemingly forever.

If the next Office for Mac is not available without an Office 365 subscription, I'll be passing on it.

Of course, I used Word v.X until Rosetta was discontinued, and now I've customized the Word 2011 interface so it looks as much as possible like Word v.X looked (which, honestly, I had customized to look as much as possible like Word 5.1). The ability to turn off the ribbon is a necessity, and my confidence that Microsoft will keep this ability in the next version of Word for Mac is rather low.

As exciting as this is for an ex-Windows tablet user (who's office recently issued Surface Pro 2s — made of suck and fail btw...) I'm cautiously optimistic.

I used OneNote frequently back in the day and have given the iOS version a glance, but never more. Being the "Mac guy" in an Exchange Enterprise environment has not been fun. I begrudgingly use Office for Mac for its integration with Office365 but still try to use Mail.App :S. OneNote would let me take notes in a great tool (hopefully) and maintain some consistency with my Windows coworkers.

That said, I've got a lot of data in Evernote. Evernote was a great fall back and for power users has a great feature set (despite the number of YouTube tutorials it takes to get up to speed, much less really leverage all the extra stuff it does), but the clipper has been it's greatest selling point. Circus Ponies NoteBook was my replacement for a long time, but as pen input became less and less of an option (their iOS App is fairly "meh" imo) EverNote made sense.

In the end EverNote and Notebook suffer from a steep learning curve in their advanced features. OneNote has always felt more user friendly. If OneNote can provide me a multi-platform web clipper, sync that isn't terrible and a penable interface on my Surface & iPad I could easily justify dropping my EverNote subscription and reducing it to a glorified scrap book.

All that said, there's no way I'm paying $99/any-amount-of-time for it and if I have to navigate the features vs. price points of multiple versions I'm out. Can't be bothered.

If the next Office for Mac is not available without an Office 365 subscription, I'll be passing on it.

Of course, I used Word v.X until Rosetta was discontinued, and now I've customized the Word 2011 interface so it looks as much as possible like Word v.X looked (which, honestly, I had customized to look as much as possible like Word 5.1). The ability to turn off the ribbon is a necessity, and my confidence that Microsoft will keep this ability in the next version of Word for Mac is rather low.

At this point, I'm pretty sure the ribbon is here to stay, like it or not. I do hope that the Mac version of Office picks up some of the ribbon customizability that has been available on the PC version sine 2010.

Here's the question, though: Will it still look like Office 2011? Or will it look like the "There was an error loading image and icon resources for this application; please run Disk Diagnostics" that is Office 2014? Because the new "Flat" UI is utter shite.

Office 365 for Mac is still Office 2011, just with the 365 subscription UI added to it.Otherwise the apps are the same. Unless something has changed this month, it's still the same GUI as 2011 whereas the "flat UI" was added to 2013 for Windows. If you're subscribing you'll be able to download 2014 for Mac when it comes out.

I haven't seen any announcements or info for 2014 for Mac, so I'm unsure if they'll borrow directly the same interface from Windows. Because it's tied so specifically with Windows 8 there is a chance it won't.

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Also, anyone who is interested, you can get the 365 University edition with 1 license/two installs for 4 years for $79 with a valid @.edu address. Not suitable for a home filled with computers, but I think beneficial for the time being while you get used to one of the open source competitors.

All that said, there's no way I'm paying $99/any-amount-of-time for it and if I have to navigate the features vs. price points of multiple versions I'm out. Can't be bothered.

Comments of this nature always amuse me just a bit. The reality is, your computer will eventually die... and even as much as you might resist it, you will eventually buy whatever you need to, in order to get back something resembling the functionality that you lost.

From my own experience: I was crushed when my trusty old 2006 iMac finally died of a failed video card. At the time, it was running Windows XP, and I was still part of the crowd who had vowed to never spend another red cent on any version of Windows. I replaced that iMac with a 2012 iMac pretty quickly... and I waited a bit, but I did indeed eventually shuck out the cash for a copy of Windows 7. (I mean, come on... how else was I going to finish playing through my Windows copy of BioShock 2?)

I know Microsoft could do better when naming products, but could you at least be a bit more specific?

Note - for those interested in the "business versus home" comparisonOffice 365 Small Business is $5 per user per month and includes a 50GB Exchange mailbox as well as Lync IM / Conferencing and free Skype minutes, plus SharePoint sites and Storage, and a public website.

Office 365 Small Business Premium is $12.50 per user per month and includes the above plus Office desktop licenses.

I recently started using it instead of folder and folders of txt documents, mostly because it syncs more easily with my android tablet. And it's been awesome to have.

I wouldn't write a paper in it (and that's not what it's for) but try doing something like keeping a recipe book in it. Good way to get introduced to the features, and combined with how it syncs with onedrive, makes it trivial to open up on your phone or other device. You can even share it with other people! Zomg, the plebs can share whole books of stuff they like to do, just by sending an email invite!

OneNote is one of Microsoft's most underrated but best applications. It's not perfect, not even close, but it is incredible for capturing, cataloging, sorting, and marking up notes.

I've tried using Evernote but I hate the UI and overall design. OneNote is pretty much the only reason I keep a Windows VM handy.

Random OneNote success story: My (computer illiterate) parents went on a 2.5 month roadtrip around North America, with only an iPad and their GPS. We shared a OneNote Notebook and I would update it on my end with maps, hotel reservations, suggested itineraries, coupons, etc. Whenever my parents checked into a hotel and connected to free WiFi, they'd launch OneNote on iPad and get the latest updates.

Now, many cloud-based note programs maybe can do this, but the way I can highlight and mark-up photos, screenshots, etc in OneNote is unbeatable. And the OneNote navigation hierarchy is so straightforward, my parents had zero problems using the app. Love love love it. I really hope the Mac version isn't gimped compared to for PC.

Office 365 subscribers will automatically get the next Office for Mac at no additional cost.

Which Office 365 subscriptions exactly are you referring to?

Office 365 for Windows is Office 2013, and for Mac it is Office 2011. Different versions have different apps (for example, the cheapest version doesn't typically come with Outlook or Publisher) and services (additional SkyDrive storage, whatever).

So, for example, Mac users with 365 will be able to download the 2014 equivalent when it is released. It won't matter *what* 365 subscription you have, only that you'll be to receive the major updates to the version you subscribe to.

So Home users will be able to upgrade to the next Home version, Business to Business, Enterprise to Enterprise, and so on. The Office programs that you subscribe to will be updated.... pretty simple. That's the entire point of Office 365: that you continue to receive major updates, and you get additional online services a la Google Docs, without having to worry about purchasing the product every few years.

I know Microsoft could do better when naming products, but could you at least be a bit more specific?

Note - for those interested in the "business versus home" comparisonOffice 365 Small Business is $5 per user per month and includes a 50GB Exchange mailbox as well as Lync IM / Conferencing and free Skype minutes, plus SharePoint sites and Storage, and a public website.

Office 365 Small Business Premium is $12.50 per user per month and includes the above plus Office desktop licenses.

The other SKUs all add various business centric features

I might switch our business to one of those plans. We all run Macs and are paying Networks solutions $30 a month for hosting and exchange server emails that are capped at 2 GB.

If the next Office for Mac is not available without an Office 365 subscription, I'll be passing on it.

Of course, I used Word v.X until Rosetta was discontinued, and now I've customized the Word 2011 interface so it looks as much as possible like Word v.X looked (which, honestly, I had customized to look as much as possible like Word 5.1). The ability to turn off the ribbon is a necessity, and my confidence that Microsoft will keep this ability in the next version of Word for Mac is rather low.

The ribbon train has long since left the station. Continuing to gripe about it is fairly pointless.

Andrew Cunningham / Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue.